Manager constantly changing meeting times at the last minute

[dipdye]

Boss always books a meeting for Friday at 9am. Around 8.50am we get an update saying its been moved to 10.30 AM. Maybe he's still eating his cornflakes?

Is it me or is this terrible management?

We are a team of 8 and are all WFH

Yes

Some might even think it a ploy to make sure everyone is at their desk on time, with no intention of being so himself!

Depends why it's moved. If something urgent has come up, then fair enough. But I'd expect the "moving meeting" email to clarify this.

Are you in a position to block out chunks of your day so you can't accommodate him fucking you around?

I hate it when people do this without good reason, and it makes me feel more like declining the invitation.

It is poor management, and it is definitely a way of making sure everyone is at their desk for 9.

It's not great, but whether it is reasonable surely depends on the impact it has. If it means you're having to rearrange client meetings or something, or wasted travel costs, then that's bad. If it just means that your day is rearranged then it might be inconvenient, but it's not really material in the grand scheme of things.

I once worked in a company where a meeting I was due to attend was cancelled while I was on the plane heading to it. The MD had decided to drop in on the same meeting, uninvited, so of course hadn't been told about the cancellation either. We had an awkward 15 minutes waiting in the meeting room until we worked out what had happened. 15 minutes after that, an email went to the entire company threatening disciplinary action for anyone who cancelled meetings with less than 24 hours notice, and the bloke who'd cancelled this one was forced to pay for my airfare out of his own budget.

threatening disciplinary action for anyone who cancelled meetings with less than 24 hours notice

Bizarre. What if main contributors are ill, or there's something that crops up at the last moment that has to take priority? It's annoying to be cancelled on but nowhere near approaching disciplinary action.

Are you in a position to block out chunks of your day so you can't accommodate him fucking you around?

^

Could do, but he'll just include me anyway.

Today we were supposed to have three meetings. Since yesterday at 4pm, they've have all been rescheduled at least once, or cancelled. So now we only have one meeting (which has been moved 3 times)

Some might even think it a ploy to make sure everyone is at their desk on time, with no intention of being so himself!

^

I'm starting to think this too...

It definitely seems to be a ploy...and whether it clashes with other meetings or not, its a pain and stops you from planning your day.

Not every task can be started early or finished late.

I find working from home, meetings do end up getting rearranged quite a bit. I suppose easier to push back a meeting or drop another in the diary when you haven't had to track down a meeting room, and have people arriving in person. But it shouldn't happen for the same meeting time and time again.

For meetings that are constantly rearranged, can you reply something along the lines of 'we've rearranged this a few times, shall we reschedule this permanently for 10:30, which seems to work for everyone?'

Can you just hold the meeting without him? Obviously depends on the meeting but generally our team meetings are as much us catching up across team as the boss leading a meeting.